Consider Lighting

There is a point in the day when an interior changes completely.

The daylight begins to disappear, lamps are switched on, a painting catches a pool of light and the darker corners of the room start to fall away.

It is often at that moment that a room becomes its most atmospheric.

Lighting is one of the most powerful parts of an interior, but perhaps one of the least considered. We spend huge amounts of time choosing furniture, fabrics, artwork and colour, yet all of those decisions can be transformed by how we choose to illuminate them.

For us, good lighting isn't about making a room brighter.

It is about deciding what you want someone to notice — and, just as importantly, what you are happy to leave in shadow.

Create layers, not brightness

The rooms we find most interesting rarely have one dominant source of light.

Instead there are layers.

A chandelier or pendant might establish the centre of a room. Wall lights provide a softer architectural glow. A floor lamp illuminates a chair or sofa. A small lamp gives warmth to an antique chest. A carefully directed spotlight picks out a painting, sculpture or particularly beautiful surface.

Individually, none needs to be especially bright.

Together, they create depth.

This is why we would almost always choose five or six subtle sources of light over one incredibly powerful one.

You don't necessarily even need to use them all at once.

Different combinations allow the room to change throughout the day.

Wall lights — illuminating the room itself

Wall lights are particularly good at creating atmosphere because rather than simply illuminating the contents of a room, they illuminate the architecture.

They wash light across plaster, stone, timber and paint, revealing textures and imperfections that can disappear under flat overhead lighting.

Our Baldr wall lights are a good example of how we like to approach this. The light escapes above and below the fitting, creating soft pools rather than a single exposed source.

Used alone, they can quietly illuminate a section of wall.

Used in pairs beside a doorway, chimney breast or artwork, they can give a room rhythm and symmetry.

And against richer wall colours — tobacco, burgundy, olive, deep brown — that glow becomes even more pronounced.

The fitting itself becomes part of the composition too. We don't think lighting should disappear completely during the day. A good light should still contribute to the room when it is switched off.

Let pendants create an event

Pendant lighting has a different job.

Rather than disappearing quietly into the architecture, it can create a focal point.

Our Nanna pendant lights work particularly well in this way.

One suspended above a small table can create an intimate pool of light. A pair can establish symmetry. A run of three over a long dining table or kitchen island gives a space rhythm and immediately makes that area feel important.

This is where scale matters.

A light shouldn't necessarily be chosen purely because it technically fits the room.

Sometimes a slightly oversized pendant or a lower-hanging light is what gives a space confidence.

Over a dining table particularly, bringing the light lower creates intimacy. The table becomes its own little world while the rest of the room is allowed to become darker.

It changes the emotion of the space.

The chandelier as sculpture

A chandelier goes one stage further.

It is both lighting and sculpture.

In an entrance hall it can give drama and height. In a sitting room it establishes a centre point. Over a dining table it introduces a sense of occasion before anybody has even sat down.

We particularly like chandeliers mixed with furniture from completely different periods.

An antique chandelier doesn't require an entirely antique room.

Put one above a clean contemporary table or introduce a simple mid-century chair beneath it and suddenly both pieces become more interesting.

The same works in reverse.

A room containing predominantly old furniture can benefit enormously from a very simple modern light.

Contrast prevents an interior from becoming predictable.

The key is not expecting the chandelier to do all of the work.

Allow it to provide drama, then use wall lights, lamps and more directional lighting to create atmosphere around it.

Floor lamps — bring light down into the room

Floor lamps occupy an important middle ground.

They bring light down from the ceiling and into the space where people actually live.

Placed beside a sofa or armchair, a floor lamp immediately makes that part of the room feel more intimate.

Our mid-century two-armed floor lamp is exactly the sort of piece we are drawn to for this reason.

Its sculptural form gives interest during the day, but once lit the two sources allow you to direct the eye towards different areas of a room.

One arm might illuminate the seat below while the other catches a painting, wall or piece of furniture beyond it.

That movement of light is important.

A room becomes much more engaging when your eye travels through it rather than taking everything in at once.

And stylistically, a mid-century floor lamp can be incredibly useful amongst antiques. That contrast of something precise and graphic beside something worn, carved or centuries old often makes both feel stronger.

Spotlight what matters

Downlights and spot lighting have developed something of a bad reputation — largely because they are so often overused.

There is nothing inherently wrong with them.

The problem is when every square metre of ceiling contains one.

Instead, think of a spotlight as exactly that:

a spotlight.

Give it a reason to exist.

Direct one onto a painting.

Use one to illuminate a sculpture.

Allow a narrow beam of light to fall onto the middle of a dining table.

Light the surface of an old walnut chest and allow the grain and patina to emerge.

Used carefully, directional lighting can make something that was simply sitting in a room suddenly become the focus.

This is particularly successful with antiques.

Old furniture has texture — worn edges, uneven surfaces, carving, polish, faded colour and evidence of age.

Lighting it from one direction creates shadow across those surfaces and emphasises everything that makes it interesting.

Flood the same piece with flat, even light and much of that character disappears.

Picture lights are not just for galleries

We love the sense of importance a picture light gives to a painting.

There is something wonderfully old fashioned about it.

It says: look at this.

And that doesn't have to mean an important oil painting.

A small sketch, textile, collection of prints or even an unexpected object can benefit from having its own light.

The idea is less about the value of the piece and more about deciding what deserves attention within the room.

The most successful interiors often have a hierarchy.

Some things speak loudly.

Others sit quietly in the background.

Lighting helps you decide which is which.

Don't light every corner

Perhaps the biggest mistake we see is the belief that a properly lit room should have no darkness.

We think almost the opposite.

Shadow is part of good lighting.

Allow some corners to disappear.

Let the edge of a room become darker.

Illuminate one object while leaving another barely visible.

That contrast is what creates depth.

Think of a restaurant, hotel bar or beautifully lit historic house. The atmosphere rarely comes from being able to see absolutely everything clearly.

It comes from pools of warm light surrounded by shadow.

The eye is naturally drawn towards them.

Home should be allowed to have the same emotion.

Change the room as the evening changes

Lighting should also be flexible.

A room at five in the afternoon doesn't necessarily want to feel the same at ten in the evening.

During the day a kitchen might need functional lighting.

At dinner, the downlights can disappear and the Nanna pendants above the table become the main source.

Later, perhaps only a pair of Baldr wall lights and a floor lamp remain switched on.

The architecture hasn't changed.

The furniture hasn't moved.

But emotionally it can feel like a completely different room.

Dimmers help enormously here.

We use them whenever possible because even a beautifully designed fitting can become uncomfortable if it is simply too bright.

Sometimes the most atmospheric version of a light is at half its potential output.

Light the things you love

Ultimately, the best lighting plans start with the contents of the room rather than the ceiling plan.

Ask yourself what you actually want to see.

If you own a wonderful painting, illuminate it.

If an old table has an extraordinary surface, allow light to catch it.

If there is a chair where you always read, give that corner its own lamp.

If the architecture is beautiful, wash light across it.

And if nothing particularly interesting is happening in one corner of the room, perhaps it doesn't need lighting at all.

Matt's View

I think the most successful interiors reveal themselves gradually.

You walk into a room and perhaps the first thing you notice is a painting caught by a picture light. Then your eye moves towards a lamp beside a chair, then across to an old table sitting partly in shadow.

You don't necessarily take the whole space in immediately.

For me, that's where atmosphere comes from.

Lighting shouldn't simply make everything visible. It should create a feeling.

The Baldr wall lights, Nanna pendants, an old chandelier or a sculptural mid-century floor lamp can all do completely different things within the same room. The important part is giving each one a purpose.

Some lights are there to help you see.

Some are there to highlight an object.

And some exist almost entirely to make a room feel wonderful.

The best interiors need all three.